May 30, 2024

Welcome to this issue of Austin Business Review, a weekly roundup of great events and insights for Austin founders (plus some other cool stuff for your life outside of work).

My name’s Ethan and I’m the one writing this (holler at me here!)

We’ve got a bunch to get into, including…

Did someone forward this to you? If you like it, you can sign up here!

-Ethan

PS. Are you traveling this summer (2+ weeks away)? I’d love to interview some founders about the systems they put in place to take vacation, so if that’s you, hit me up here!

Upcoming Events

Running a business is tough. Here are a few great places to meet cool people going through the same sh*t you are.

Other Fun Stuff Coming Up…

…because if you’re anything like me, you work too much already. So here’s some fun stuff to do around town that’s not necessarily related to business.

One Last Thing: A couple weeks ago I told you about Thomas Shields, local founder of The Dink, which is the go-to pickleball newsletter. They’re teaming up with OluKai to host a tournament in Austin soon. Glory. Swag. And a bunch of cool prizes (like craziest-dressed, or fastest serve). If you play, check it out!

Word On The Street

Cool stuff shared by founders and brands in ATX

1. Mechanics of Exponential Growth: This was so good! Santosh Sharan helped scale ZoomInfo from <$10m to almost $100m in five years. He’s also led and advised dozens of other data companies. In this webinar, he broke down what worked, and what’s changing, including how to…

No salesy bullshit. Just really good insight from a long career building. Highly recommend.

2. Stop Website Copycats: Ever have a competitor rip off your website? Founder and IP attorney Nicole Schwartz published this quick 3-part writeup on how to legally protect your web design. I spent the first half of my career as a web developer and these still surprised me. Simple, but often overlooked.

3. And The Student Was Enlightened: Unicorn founder Jason Cohen has been writing these Zen startup Koans for the last few months (Cohen Koans?). Loved this one the other day – this is something that comes up all the time building communities 👇

4. Ecomm Founders: Looking for a Local Warehouse? Cathryn Lavery, of BestSelf Co, has a line on air-conditioned space opening up nearby. She’s moved a lot of her inventory there to save on 3PL fees. DM her on Twitter for more info!

5. Does Your CPG Need An Oil Change? Beyond Meat recently switched to using avocado oil, and Caroline Grace did this fascinating writeup on the change, complete with first-hand data and analysis on how buyers perceive different types of oils in food products.

6. Know Someone Relocating To ATX? Austin Distel, founding CMO of Jasper AI, and his wife, Paige, are selling their custom-built home on the south side. If you introduce them to the buyer, they’ll buy your round trip ticket to Paris (the real one, in France… Not this one in Texas.) More info here 🇫🇷

Local Shop of the Week

(Not an ad, just a cool spot you should know)

Parker + Scott | 2113 W. Anderson Ln.

Last week, I told you I was on the hunt for local drinks to bring to summer parties. Marc Nathan (my go-to guy for all CPG questions) mentioned Parker + Scott on the north side of town.

It’s run by husband/wife duo Jess and Ian Haisley, and curates food, home, and lifestyle brands, hundreds of which are women-owned and made right here in Texas.

Austin Daily did a nice write-up on them.

I’ll do a more detailed write-up on my favorite buys soon, but for now, I’ll just say that I wandered down there looking for snacks recently, and these hot honey chips from NUFS are addicting (more like, can’t get ‘NUF, am I right?)

Seems like a great stop if you’re stocking up for out-of-town guests (or travel), and want to share something that’s uniquely Austin.

PS. They’ve also got a Super Secret Social Club for Snackers that does tasting events with local snack brands. Very rad

Here’s How Weird Austin Is…

(A.K.A. Local Artist of the Week)

As I was researching Parker + Scott for this issue, I noticed this watercolor on their Instagram page, done by an artist named Alex Quirk.

It looked cool, so I clicked around to see more of her stuff.

The very next morning, while walking my dog, I came across a pop-up farm stand in my neighborhood selling bread, eggs, and local art. The art was signed Alex Quirk too.

“Oh cool,” I said. “I was just reading about her yesterday.”

“Oh, that’s me,” the woman running the pop-up said.

So that’s how Alex Quirk became this issue’s Artist of the Week. She does these cool nature-inspired woodcut prints, and tiny landscapes (about the size of a box of matches). She also takes commissions for watercolor pet portraits which are just 🤌

Check out her IG, find prints on her website… Or, you know… Walk around random neighborhoods ‘till you run into her, because apparently that happens.

That’s all for this week!

Email me here if you want to share any feedback, or let me know about an event you’re hosting.

Until next week,

-Ethan

Thank you to all the incredible local founders and leaders who share great insights and events. You can follow and connect with them here…

Rachel McGrath, Zach Arrow, Ryan McInerny, Hanna Renee, Chris Ivester, Michael Daigler, Marc Bolh, Corey Hiben, Vas Daskalakis, Nicole Swartz, Santosh Sharan, Caroline Grace, Jason Cohen, Cathryn Lavery, Austin Distel, Marc Nathan, Alex Quirk